Friday, 17 January 2014

This week, I'm continuing with my nostalgic recipes! In my last post I made Red bean rice flour puddings - one of my favourite Hong Kong street foods from childhood and, I'm sure, a lot of other people's favourites as well. Do you remember the little five spice pork sesame seed balls, which were always sold alongside the puddings in those days?

說起來，小時我對那些小小圓圓鹹香粘軟的炸芝蔴球也是挺喜歡的；每每要作一番心理掙扎方能决定，該把錢花在那個小吃去才是。

When I was little, I couldn't pick a
favourite between the two snacks. I loved those small, round, soft, flavoursome
deep fried sesame balls just as much as the little puddings. Many times it was
a struggle for me to make up my mind about which treat I should spend my pocket
money on.

Of course there’s also a very special reason that I have always been
so fond of sesame seed balls, which I’ve already talked about it in my last post. Because my own family love them as much as I do, they're always on the
menu at Chinese New Year.

中國南北各省都有他們不同的賀年食品。煎堆是廣東及香港、澳門地區常見的春節小吃，有帶來福祿團圓的吉祥意思。

In China, every province has its own particular traditional
Chinese New Year celebration food, and in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, deep
fried sesame seed balls is the one on top of most people's list. It
symbolises good luck, good fortune and
happiness all year round.

一向過年時大家都喜歡做甜味的煎堆，有用蓮蓉、豆沙、花生椰絲蓉等作餡料。今年何不多添款「五香鹹煎堆」，給家人和朋友換換口味？

相信會帶來不少驚喜。

For New Year, people usually make them with sweet fillings
such as red bean paste, lotus seed paste, peanut with coconuts and so on. This year, why don't you try to include this one with five spice pork filling? I'm sure it will give your family
and visitors a lovely and very pleasant surprise.